On Wednesday, 9 July 2025, at the Zografou Campus, the lecture by Dimitris Bertsimas, Professor and Vice Provost for Open Learning at MIT, entitled: “Universal AI and the Future of Education“ was held with great success.
The event attracted keen interest not only from the NTUA community, drawing a large audience of students, academics, and researchers, but also representatives from the political and business sectors, sponsors and donors of NTUA, faculty members from other domestic universities, and alumni associations of American higher education institutions. Beyond those present in the packed auditorium, the lecture was broadcast live via streaming, attracting a large online audience.
In his address, the Rector of NTUA, Professor Ioannis Chatzigeorgiou, introduced alumnus of the School of Electrical & Computer Engineering at NTUA, Dimitris Bertsimas, who became an Assistant Professor at MIT at only 26 years of age and a Full Professor at 32, making him one of the youngest people ever to become a full professor in the history of MIT. In 2005, he was elected to the National Academy of Engineering of the United States for his contributions to the theory of optimization and stochastic systems and their applications in finance and transportation. This past May, MIT awarded him its highest honor, the James R. Killian Jr. Faculty Achievement Award 2025–2026, recognizing his profound scientific knowledge, innovation, and social contribution. His recent initiative, Universal AI, ambitiously aims to train more than 1 billion people in artificial intelligence and to make it transparent, interpretable, and directly applicable to everyday decision-making. In closing, the Rector, Prof. Chatzigeorgiou, recalled a phrase that Mr. Bertsimas has used on many occasions: “Science without application is incomplete. Our mission is to transform knowledge into impact and to focus on solving problems that bring meaningful change — not in fifty years, but today.” This phrase encapsulates an entire vision of the role of the scientist, the researcher, and the academic — a vision that aligns perfectly with NTUA’s mission to produce high-quality scientific knowledge and translate it into tangible, positive impact for society, the economy, and the environment.
Professor Bertsimas then offered a retrospective of his journey from Greece and the School of Electrical & Computer Engineering at NTUA to his international academic recognition, highlighting the pivotal role that NTUA and its professors played in shaping his subsequent career. In his lecture, he showcased the impact of Artificial Intelligence on critical fields such as education, teaching, healthcare, and weather forecasting, generating intense interest and sparking substantive discussion. The Universal AI program, which aims to gradually train more than 1 billion people in artificial intelligence, combines horizontals (such as optimization, machine learning, and language models) with vertical applications (such as healthcare, energy, and education), with the goal of immediately converting knowledge into action.
It was an honor for NTUA to welcome one of its most distinguished alumni, Dimitris Bertsimas, who today holds a leading position worldwide in the field of operations research and artificial intelligence. His presence at NTUA, not only as a pioneering scientist but also as the driving force behind Universal AI, symbolizes the productive connection of the institution with the cutting edge of global science and technology, as well as the administration’s commitment to further collaboration in this field.
